The form
Authors I love
Authors you know well. Names, descriptions, and groups all work; groups expand to all members. The Recommend radio below the field controls what we do with the names — Similar excludes them and recommends other voices in the same tradition; Deeper stays within the named catalogues and surfaces lesser-known work.
e.g. Murakami · the author of Frankenstein · the Brontë sisters
Books, characters, or people I love
Specific books, fictional characters, or real people whose work anchors a taste. Exact titles are excluded; other works by the same author may still surface.
e.g. The Hitchhiker's Guide · Sherlock Holmes · Anthony Bourdain
Books I've already read (optional)
Strict exclusion only — these don't influence your taste profile. Use it for books you've finished without necessarily loving.
I'm in the mood for
The strongest signal we work with — a vibe, a theme, a setting, a feeling. The clearer you can be, the better.
e.g. a revenge novel · cosy mystery set in winter · something funny
Genre · Age group · Length · Series
Filters layered over the rest. Any is a perfectly fine choice if you're flexible.
The engine
- Each request: four candidates, then a multi-step verification.
- Existence checked against Open Library, with Google Books as a second source — no invented titles.
- Author and book exclusions enforced server-side. Group references expand to all members.
- Synopsis quality, author diversity (max 1 per author), and genre / mood drift all checked.
- A second AI judgment confirms each book really fits your signal.
- Sometimes returns fewer than four — we'd rather hand you one excellent book than four mediocre ones.
Also on the page
- Currently Trending — live NYT bestseller data.
- Curated Library Picks — 97 hand-selected books, refreshed each visit.
- About the Author — short bio on demand for any named author.
- Show Bibliography — looks up an author's complete published works.
We honour authors in their actual scripts. Co-authors get equal billing. We do not pad, invent titles, or soften with "while not exactly…". If a book doesn't fit, we drop it.